Modern telecommunications make frequent use of coaxial cables. CATV installations represent perhaps the most frequently encountered use of coaxial cables but this is by no means the only application for this type of cabling. Special connectors have been developed for use with coaxial cable. These are commonly used to connect a device, such as a television, to a wall-mounted jack where an incoming signal line is terminated. Again there are many other common uses of coaxial cable connectors. A complete connector includes both a male half and a female half. Typically the female half is mounted on a wall jack and the male half is attached to the end of a cable to be connected to the wall jack, although it could be reversed from this arrangement.
In the United States there are two primary coaxial connector types, the F-type connector and the BNC connector. An example of a BNC connector is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,609,925, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. The male half of each type generally includes a male shell the interior of which has an elastomeric sleeve and a center pin. An annular attachment ring is mounted on the exterior of the male shell and is freely rotatable thereon. The major differences between the two connector types lie in the attachment rings and their mating counterparts on the female half of the full connector. The F-type attachment ring has an internal thread at its free end and external hexagonal flats near its inner end. The threads engage mating external threads on the female half of the full connector when the hex surface of the attachment ring is rotated. The BNC attachment ring has spiral grooves in it that receive mating pins on the female shell. An external knurled portion provides a gripping surface for engaging and rotating the attachment ring to cause the pins of the female half to seat in detents at the ends of the spiral grooves. It will be understood that both the male and female halves of the full connector include additional components such as washers, spring washers, pins, clamp nuts and the like which are not directly pertinent to the present invention.
Installers of coaxial cable systems have a need for a tool for driving the male halves of the connectors into engagement with the female halves. Such tools are available for driving one type of connector or the other. But due to the different sizes and characteristics of the attachment rings, a tool suitable for one type of connector cannot be used to drive the other type of connector. The present invention is directed to a single tool which can drive both F-type connectors and BNC type connectors.